


Learning Love

by FrostyLee



Category: Hannibal Extended Universe - Fandom, Mænd & høns | Men & Chicken (2015), The Big C (TV)
Genre: Cocotte as Elias, Established Relationship, Moulin Rouge AU, Nonbinary Lee Fallon, Other, transgender Elias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 19:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13441587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostyLee/pseuds/FrostyLee
Summary: The Moulin Rouge will always teach about the greatest thing you'll ever learn.





	Learning Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FlyingRotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingRotten/gifts).



> For Camille, who never ceases to amaze me with all she does. I saw Cocotte and the thought of the Moulin Rouge and the lesson of love... I couldn't pass it up. Thank you, Camille, for letting me use Cocotte <3

“Thank you for ridding me of,” Lee paused, sobbing in front of hundreds of people, “of my ridiculous obsession with love.” They then threw money to Cocotte and walked away. The pain and heartache wouldn't fade but if they left it'd be better. It'd be better than staying at the Moulin Rouge to be made a joke of every time she was with Paul. Their tears were replaced as they kept wiping them away. How stupid they've been not to realize Cocotte’s true intentions. What a fool in love they were. Such a fool.

“Lee,” Cocotte spoke weakly, she was overcome with hurt and distress. Her eyes looked over to her brothers who were practically motioning her to do something. “Please.” Paul watched her as she got a grip on herself and started to sing loudly, with as much love as she had in her.

“Never knew I could feel like this, like I’ve never seen the sky before. I want to vanish inside your kiss. Every day I’m loving you more and more. Listen to my heart, can you hear it sing? Come back to me and forgive everything. Seasons may change, winter to spring,” she spoke the next part, “I love you.” Nothing would stop her from finishing it. “Til the end of time.”

Everyone noticed Lee had stopped walking. Stopped breathing even. They turned slightly to look back to Cocotte and saw the hope in her eyes. The diamonds meant nothing to her if the man didn't love her. Not like she knew for a fact Lee did. Her lover meant more to her than even her own life and she didn't want to lose that. She saw that now, saw love for what it was. Pure and unbreakable.

“Come what may.” Lee sang softly, to which got them a few head turns. Cocotte sighed happily as she watched them. “Come what may.” Louder and with more feeling needed, something the enby was not afraid to give. “Come what may!” One more push as they made their way back to the stage to stand with Cocotte, the love of their life. “Come what may!” Lee started the next part of the song, of their song. “I will love you!”

Cocotte’s eyes were filled once more, but this time with happiness. She sang with her whole being. “I will love you!” This was their moment, their first true moment in front of hundreds of eyes declaring their love for one another. Cocotte felt lifted up, like being free for once in her life. She was give a choice to do as she pleased without any consequence. Love was one of the most powerful feelings in the world and they were both feeling it.

“Until my dying day!” Lee finished with Cocotte before starting again together. “Come what may!”

“Come what may!” The enby sang as they were finally able to touch each other again after what felt like a lifetime. Lee buried their face in Cocotte’s neck, having missed her perfume. Close enough to kiss but neither were finished with _their_ song. It needed to be finished. They knew in their hearts that’s what needed to be done.

“Come what may!” Cocotte echoed back to Lee as she tightened her arms around them. She never wanted to let them go again. Not in this lifetime or any others that would come after. That in itself would be too much. She couldn’t do that to them again, not after everything that happened.

“I will love you until my dying-” They were interrupted though.

“Lee, he’s got a gun!” Adam fell from the rafters behind the couple. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. “They’re trying to kill you!” He cried out. The audience just laughed at him though, thinking it was still part of the play they were putting on. The cast could tell he was being serious though. Why in the world would anyone want to kill Lee? Cocotte knew it to be true as she’d been told previously in the night, before the play even started.

“Shut up!” Gabriel demanded.

Adam wouldn’t be silenced though. He cared too much for Lee to let anything happen to them. “Look he’s got a gun! He’s a murderer!”

Gabriel spoke over him like he wasn’t there though. “Guards, seize them!” He wouldn’t break character, even for this.

Josef ran out to center stage though. “Vive le vie de Boheme!” Then he threw smoke pellets down to cause a distraction. It surprised the audience more than anyone would have like but it was for effect they’d all say later.

Cathy danced closer to the gun before kicking it away from the shooter so he wouldn’t have the opportunity to shoot either of her friends. The woman had grown close to both Lee and Cocotte and wanted to lose neither one. She even went as far as stepping on his hands before she screamed in his face when he got the gun back.

The door behind the cast opened to revealed Franz while at the same time hitting the shooter, making him lose his gun on the very front of the stage. He spoke up at everyone’s shocked faces. “No problem! Go back to work!”

Adam started singing himself when the initial shock wore off. “No matter what you say.” After that the cast got the hint and went to their positions for this number.

“The show is ending our way. Come on and stand your ground for freedom, beauty, truth, and love!” Some of the cast got out of the way so Cocotte and Lee were the main focus of the stage, even with everything going on around them. “How wonderful life is.”

“One day I’ll fly away!” Cocotte sang with everything she had. This was for her and for Lee. For the both of them to at least be happy with one another.

“My gift is my song!” Lee replied as they watched Cocotte with a smile in her natural element. She was truly a vision and it was no question as to why Paul wanted her. Lee wanted to know all of her while Paul just wanted what was on the outside. None of what lay beneath the skin. Maybe that was why Cocotte had chosen them over Paul. Love, true love, had shown through.

Andrea noticed the shooter joined the band with a tambourine that made her decide to stop him from killing Lee and Cocotte, two of the happiest people when they were together. No way she would let him get away with that. She searched around for something she could use.

The cast went back to singing as they danced around the stage. “The children of the revolution, No you won't fool the children of the revolution.”

Paul gestured to the gun that was still on the front of center stage. The shooter was worried he’d be seen by the others but was still going to do as he was paid to do. Get the gun and kill Lee.

Cocotte watched Lee now as they watched her back. “One day I’ll fly away!” Lee looked down, trying to keep happy tears at bay for now. Later when they were alone, they’d be shed, but for now, the show had to go on.

“My gift is my song!” Lee observed the audience who seemed to be having the time of their life with this improvised performance which would no doubt help the money rolling in for the Moulin Rouge for a while.

Andrea found a sandbag and readied it at the same time the shooter reached the gun. The cast still sang as this was going on. “No you won't fool the children of the revolution. No you won't fool the children of the revolution.” She dropped just as he shot but the sandbag hit him in the head, causing him to miss and cause another controlled explosion behind the cast. She cheered to herself quietly as to not interrupt the finale. “Come what may!”

Finally, Cocotte and Lee sang together as they looked each other straight in the eyes. “I will love you!”

Everyone sang their hearts out for them, it was heartwarming. “Come what may!”

The couple held hands as the pulled apart. “Yes, I will love you!”

One more for the cast. “Come what may!”

They were both lifted and brought back together by their friends who couldn’t bare to see them apart anymore. “I will love you!”

Paul had other ideas though. The gun had landed behind him as he was walking away. The temptation was too great. He grabbed it, raised it up to shoot one of them, he wasn’t entirely sure which one would get the bullet now that he was seeing red. “My way! My way! My way! My way!” He chanted over and over as he ran back down the aisle.

Then the whole crew of the Moulin Rouge sang the final line together as they spun Cocotte and Lee in a circle to make it all the sweeter when they were brought back together. “Until my dying day!” Just as Paul reached them though, Gabriel punched him in the face, sending the gun flying through the window to who knows where.

The curtain fell on the stage and everyone was cheering. Some hugged each other and others cried with joy. It wasn't how the play was originally supposed to go but everyone loved this version instead. Their friends were together and the duke was out of the way. Now, Lee and Cocotte could be with each other until the day they died.

“Oh, Darling. My Darling.” Lee held Cocotte’s face gently as they shared a kiss. Then they shared another and another and another. There was no stopping their slow kisses in front of everyone. Cocotte cried as she returned each kiss with just as much passion and love. She loved Lee and Lee loved her. Words were beyond her at the moment but she had no care for them, not at that moment. Lee would have kissed them off her lips either way.

Adam and Andrea hugged each other, not caring that they disliked each other since they had met a few years ago. Gabriel looked on as his brothers dog piled on one another before he was pulled into the mix. Cathy watched her son and adopted daughter hug and the brothers, for one, getting along. Her best friend and their lover finally getting the ending they deserved. She was happy to be around them now that Paul was out of the way of their happiness.

Several months would pass until Lee would get paid for his book, _Learning Love_ , of their story about what happened at the Moulin Rouge with Cocotte. Their lover would be happy for them and they could go anywhere. The Moulin Rouge would always be Lee’s home but with having to watched Cocotte almost leave them and then losing something they had just gotten.

“Lee, sweetheart?” The enby sat up and wiped the tears from his face at the voice they loved above all others. They made their way to the living room to give Cocotte a warm welcome home. A kiss to her lips before she dropped her bag and picked them up in her arms. “Hello.” They smiled to each other after sharing another kiss.

“Hello.” Lee figured they’d be alright now that Cocotte and them could live out their lives since Cathy returned the ring they’d lost. It was something they wanted to give Cocotte, as a promise to always be there. They did so the morning after and Cocotte enthusiastically hugged them tight before putting the ring on with tears in her eyes. It was one of the best mornings and even now, Lee saw it on her finger to match the one on their own from Cocotte herself.

“The greatest thing we’ll ever have learned is to love and be loved in return. It’s very sappy, your book.” Cocotte informed Lee as she carried them back to the bedroom. Lee figured she must have skipped to the end, the best part, and read it thoroughly and over and over again. It was honestly also Lee’s favorite part but they would wait to tell Cocotte.

“I will love you until my dying day.” They sang softly together before Cocotte kicked the door shut with a toothy grin. She set them down on the bed to start undressing them but Lee wanted to make it a challenge and rolled off the bed. Their lover, of course, chased them with giggles and little taunts knowing it was all in good fun and that she’d catch them sooner rather than later.

Which she did and reaped her reward from Lee, especially after they told her about the money from the book. Everything turned out more than okay for the two of them in the end and neither of them would have it any other way than that. Both of them happy and more importantly, free.

**Author's Note:**

> Always a pleasure writing!
> 
> *[main twitter](https://twitter.com/FrostyLeeGraham)* *[writing twitter](https://twitter.com/ValorFallon)* *[tumblr](https://frostyleegraham.tumblr.com/)*


End file.
